Anna’s Accolade

Congratulations to Australia’s Anna Flanagan who last night was voted the FIH World Young Player of the year. Flanagan was voted ahead of Erica Coppey (Belgium), Cheon Eun Bi (Korea), Florencia Habif (Argentina) and Stacey Michelsen (New Zealand).

The FIH World Young Player of the Year is awarded to the best international hockey player aged 21 or younger. Flanagan who hails from Canberra but moved to Perth to pursue her Hockeyroos dreams wins the award following her outstanding performances in 2012. Highlights of which included scoring twice at the Olympic Games where the Hockeyroos finished fifth, which was two places higher than their world ranking at that time.

Flanagan debuted for Australia in 2010 and was a member of the Hockeyroos squad for the 2010 Commonwealth Games that went on to win gold in Delhi. She is now a Hockeyroos regular and has competed at the Olympic Games, Champions Trophy, Champions Challenge and Oceania Cup and is currently part of the team at the Investec World League to hopefully qualify Australia for the World Cup next year.

Flanagan becomes the third Australian woman to win the award, following in the footsteps of current teammate Casey Eastham (2009) and Angie Skirving, who was the inaugural winner of the Young Player award back in 2001.